I remember studying weather in grade school. We learned how
the moon and tides are connected, and how weather is predicted. We ran around
in the pouring rain with sponges on our heads, then weighed our wet sponges to prove
the running leaves you just as wet as walking (unless, of course, the running
gets you out of the rain sooner.) But we never learned the words I hear
meteorologists spouting these days. We covered rain and hail and snow, but not
graupel (granular snow pellets). We learned about jet streams, but not about a
polar vortex (which is always found near the poles, but sometimes causes other
places to experience arctic conditions). I know we never discussed atmospheric
rivers, thundersnow, derechos, flash droughts, or bomb cyclones. (If I
understood these well enough to give a definition, I would.) Has the weather
really changed that much in half a century, or have we just invented new words
to describe it?
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